


Kiss It Better

by invoked_duplicity



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Feelings, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon, Riz with his healer feat and his healer's kit lives in my head rent free ok, Wound patching, living my dream of Fabian pining after Riz for his competence and general badassery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29807439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invoked_duplicity/pseuds/invoked_duplicity
Summary: Riz and Fabian get stuck in a cave and both of them are injured.
Relationships: Riz Gukgak/Fabian Aramais Seacaster
Comments: 6
Kudos: 80
Collections: Dimension 20 Alphabet 2021





	Kiss It Better

The air smells of smoke, dust and blood. 

Fabian is pretty sure that his left foot is broken, which sucks because he’s going to have a hard time kicking anyone’s ass without both his feet. Dancing will also be difficult. 

He clutches his battle sheet and tries to pull his foot out of the rubble it got stuck between. If he gets his hands on the bastards who made this damn cave explode above them even their ancestors are going to have a headache waking up tomorrow. 

But for that to happen, Fabian needs to get out of here. 

“Fabian?”

Riz’ voice sounds hoarse and muffled and Fabian assumes that he’s somewhere behind another pile of rubble. 

“I’m over here”, he answers and tries to make his voice sound casual and not like he wants to do something embarrassing, like whimper from the pain. Fabian can barely anything and breathing is hard because there is so much dust in the air. 

“I’ll—let me see if I can get to you. You okay?”, Riz asks. Fabian doesn’t waste his breath to answer, he tries to push some of the rubble away from his ankle and lets out a wheezing breath. His mouth tastes like iron. 

He can hear Riz try to move the rubble out of the way, but his arms are like tiny twigs so Fabian doesn’t see how he’ll get any of that shit to move. And Fabian, being uselessly stuck with his damn foot, can’t help him. 

Fabian thought that splitting up the party was the smartest move, but now he regrets their choices because damn, they sure could use Kristen’s healing or Adaine’s magic or Gorgug’s insane muscles to move some of this shit. 

The quest to defeat the Night Yorb hasn’t exactly gone well so far. Fabian feels like being stuck in a fucking cave with his foot broken and his mouth full of blood is the peak of bad luck that they have reached so far. He can only hope that the others had more success on their ventures. 

But as far as he knows, they’re also stuck somewhere in here. 

Fabian never specifically had a problem with small, closed spaces, but right now he feels like his chest is unusually tight and he could swear that the damn ceiling is getting closer while he’s desperately trying to get his foot unstuck. 

The rubble behind him shifts and a few pained noises bring Fabian back to reality as a small, lithe shape wiggles itself through an impossible tiny crack made in the pile behind him as Riz appears, his head bleeding profusely and his face contorted in a mix of determination and pain. 

“Are you okay?”, Riz asks again the second he scrambles through the hole he made. Fabian notices that his hands are also bleeding—probably from digging through all those stones. Something in Fabian’s chest feels like a nervous bird fluttering against his rib cage and it takes him a confused moment to realize that it’s his heart. 

Riz has been different since they defeated the Nightmare King. 

More self confident somehow. Less awkward. Scarily competent. 

And he stopped wearing his hat. 

Fabian has been feeling weird around him for a while, but the fact that this little Goblin dug himself through sharp rocks to get to him, bleeding and bruised and hurt, and the first thing he does is ask if Fabian is okay—it does things to him. 

Fabian refuses to acknowledge this. 

“My foot is stuck”, he says. 

Riz—and he’s been Riz for a while now, at least in Fabian’s head, and not The Ball anymore—turns his huge, yellow eyes to the stones that are crushing Fabian’s foot between them. 

“Got it”, Riz says and without doing anything about his bleeding head or his bleeding hands he gets to work, his small frame working tirelessly, determined, stubborn even. The rocks are big—way too big for Riz to actually lift them. 

But Riz wouldn’t be Riz if he wouldn’t be a nerd even about stuff like this. 

Using his sword as leverage he manages to roll the bigger ones off of the pile. While he works Fabian can see blood dripping down the sword and Riz’ face. 

He swallows heavily. 

“You’re bleeding”, he croaks. 

“I know. I’ll take care of it in a second”, Riz answers. 

He’s focused. 

Fabian knows that, when Riz gets like this, there is no way to deter him from the task at hand. It sometimes happens for a project at school, or when he has a case he’s close to cracking. He disappears into his head and into his task at hand and it takes hours for him to appear again. 

Fabian doesn’t know when exactly he started to catalogue all of Riz’ facial expressions and behaviors, but he has quite the collection so far. 

Riz works in silence. Sometimes, when he gets like this, he starts mumbling to himself, but not this time. 

He looks almost grim. 

Fabian isn’t sure if it’s actually getting warmer in here or if that’s just him. 

“Do you think the others got stuck as well?”, he says to distract himself from the heat crawling under his skin and the fluttering in his chest. 

“Probably not. By my estimation they should be way further down already”, Riz murmurs and wipes some sweat off his forehead, which simply leaves a smearing of blood where his hand touches his green skin. 

Fabian has no idea since when his damn brain finds it mesmerizing to see blood on his best friend’s skin, but here he is, staring at Riz because he looks weirdly... ragged? Badass? 

Fabian is annoyed at himself. 

When he finally feels the weight lifted off his ankle he pulls his leg out and makes a pained noise in the back of his throat that causes Riz’ concentrated gaze to turn to him. His yellow eyes remind Fabian of cats’ eyes in the dark and he swallows again as Riz comes over to him and touches Fabian’s face to turn his head to the side so he can inspect his wounds. 

Fabian’s heart stumbles in his chest. 

Gods dammit, this is completely ridiculous. 

“You bleeding anywhere else?”, Riz asks and then his eyes find Fabian’s and they’re staring at each other. Fabian knows that Riz is in no headspace to think about kissing, but damn, Fabian does. Fabian’s stupid brain tells him to just grab Riz by the shoulders and pull him down, pull him on top of Fabian to minimize the space between them—

“Fabian? You got a concussion? Let me check your eyes.”

Riz gets even closer. 

Fabian thinks he might die. 

He thinks about the way Aelwyn made him feel back then, when he got so excited about kissing her again. Somehow that was nothing compared to how he’s been feeling about Riz for a while now. As Fig said, kissing someone you’re “madly in love with just hits different”. 

“Don’t think so”, he manages and his voice sounds like sandpaper on stone. 

“Okay. I have my healer’s kit. Just let me clean my hands real quick.”

Fabian watches how Riz procures water and his healer’s kit from his bag and starts washing his hands as good as he can before he tries to wrap bandages around both of his hands. He lets out a frustrated hiss. 

“Let me—“, Fabian says and grabs Riz’ hands. 

To be fair, Fabian never paid much attention when Cathilda or Kristen tried to teach him first aid because it never was of much interest to him—and now he definitely wishes he had listened a little closer. But it can’t be that difficult to wrap a tiny pair of Goblin hands in bandages to make them stop bleeding. 

“You have to do, like, a kind of V-shape. Yeah. Like that. Not too tight, please. Yeah, that works.”

What Fabian didn’t really think through was that now he’s somewhat holding Riz’ hands. Which doesn’t exactly help his brain or his heart to calm down. At least his internal turmoil distracts him from the pain and the situation they’re currently in. 

He remembers how Riz stole that healer’s kit on their very first day of school. He’s had it ever since and restocked it carefully for each of their adventures, taking great care to learn how to give first aid to his friends when everyone else was out of spells or they were separated. 

“Thanks, Fabian”, Riz says once it’s done and he wiggles his fingers slightly, then turns his eyes back on Fabian’s face. 

“I’ll take care of your head first and then I can check out that foot. Maybe I can—I dunno. Make a splint or something.”

“You—uh. You got really good at this”, Fabian says and turns his gaze upwards so he doesn’t have to focus on Riz’ yellow eyes right in front of him anymore. 

“Thanks”, Riz mumbles and his bandages fingers touch Fabian’s face gently. 

Fabian kind of wishes one of the rocks had just knocked him out. 

This is pathetic. 

He is Fabian Aramais Seacaster. 

Maybe his confidence died briefly—or for a longer period of time—back on their Spring Break adventure, but he’s been building it back up! He’s a catch! He’s amazing! 

Riz should be the one getting nervous because he’s allowed to touch Fabian’s handsome face. 

“I think once we’re patched up you should take my sword and teleport through all that rubble and I’ll try to crawl back. We need to find the others.”

“You shouldn’t crawl back through that, The Ball”, Fabian says, thinking about Riz’s bloody hands. Riz shouldn’t get hurt on Fabian’s behalf. 

Gods, Fabian has it bad. 

“It’s fine. I’m smaller than you, so it’s easier for me. And I don’t think you should move too much with that brok—“

“I’m in—I have feelings. For you.”

Silence. 

Fabian doesn’t dare to breathe. Two seconds ago it felt right to finally say it, but now he’s regretting all his life choices leading up to this, as Riz’ yellow eyes stare at him, his small fingers still on Fabian’s forehead, holding a piece of gauze against the wound. 

“Wh—what?”

“Forget it—it’s uh—I probably do have a concussion. Nevermind!”

He can tell that Riz doesn’t buy it and also that Fabian’s words have ripped him out of his state of hyper-focus, something that Fabian has never managed to do before. Maybe he should feel kind of proud. But instead he feels sick to his stomach. 

“Feelings? Like—uh—like...”

Fabian sees the confidence slip from Riz’ face like a mask he wore, and underneath is still the socially awkward kid handing people fucking business cards and vomiting inside of backpacks because he heard some clues. 

“Yeah. Like that”, he says. 

It’s hard to see in the dark, but Fabian could swear that Riz’ cheeks are tinted dark green. 

“Really?”

His voice sounds very small now. Nervous. As if he expects Fabian to start laughing and say “Of course not, The Ball”. Which is probably fair. It’s not like Fabian ever managed to make his appreciation of his best friend very clear. 

“Hm.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? What does that mean?”

“I—uh—I don’t. Um—this is—“

Riz laughs nervously and turns his head. 

“I didn’t—um. Well”, he laughs again and sits down, hugs his knees and props his chin on top of them. “I kinda didn’t expect to ever hear that. From you. Um—yeah. It’s been... a long time. For me? I guess.”

Fabian’s brain short circuits and his heart does a very complicated dancing routine. 

“You—what?”

Riz peaks up at him. Shrugs. 

“I’ve kinda been in love with you since. I don’t even know. A long time.”

“For real?”

“Yeah. For real.”

“Okay, fuck this cave. Fuck this whole thing. We have to get out of here so I can fucking kiss your brains out. Give me your sword.”

Riz hides his face for a second and then he laughs, a shaky, nervous but also happy laugh. He does not hand Fabian his sword. 

“First the wounds. Then the sword. Then—then the other stuff.”

“Fine. You better hurry up.”

“I will. Hold still.”

Fabian is still determined to kick everyone’s ass once they get out of this. But maybe he’ll also send them some fruit baskets to the hospital afterwards.


End file.
